Re: git subtree: an alternative to git submodule

[Avery Pennarun <apenwarr@gmail.com>]

On Fri, May 8, 2009 at 6:39 PM, Avery Pennarun <apenwarr@gmail.com> wrote:
> I first sent out this patch set a couple of weeks ago
> (http://article.gmane.org/gmane.comp.version-control.git/117612) and got a
> couple of positive comments, but no negative ones, so I'm guessing people
> haven't reviewed it as closely as I would have hoped :)
>
> git subtree has these subcommands:
>
>  - add: connect a given commit to a given subtree, basically using the
>   occasionally-documented 'git read-tree --prefix; git commit' trick.
>
>  - merge: a user-friendlier form of 'git merge -s subtree'
>
>  - pull: likewise, but for git pull
>
>  - split: (the magical part!) generate a new commit series from the given
>   prefix, so you can submit subtree changes *back* to the upstream project
>   you merged in the first place.
>
> Does anyone have any comments on what it would take to get the git subtree
> stuff accepted into git?

Hi all,

Just checking in again.  Since I originally announced git-subtree, it
(or rather the concept) has received a bit of positive feedback out in
the wild.  My original blog post about it:
http://alumnit.ca/~apenwarr/log/?m=200904#30

The heroku mailing list:
http://groups.google.com/group/heroku/browse_thread/thread/5e6807fcd2572f64

Ycombinator news: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=604405
And again: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=604889

Meanwhile, I've been keeping it in a separate git repo here:
http://github.com/apenwarr/git-subtree/commits/master (that's a web
link, not a git link).

The common thread in all these discussions is along the lines of,
"This sounds cool!  I didn't try it though.  Maybe I should!"
Commenters then seem to disappear into a black hole.  The black hole
of my code!  Bwahahaha!  Sigh.

I would love to hear some feedback about this, particularly for the
question of what needs to be done to get it adopted into git's
mainline, or if it's in fact so evil that this is unlikely to ever
happen.  Obviously I would need to write a man page, but I've been
hesitant to do that in case people have suggestions that need the
whole UI to change.  Perhaps that's a chicken-and-egg problem, though,
and I should just get on with writing it.

Flame away!

Thanks,

Avery

P.S. Dscho is usually really good at flaming me for being stupid, but
he has been strangely silent on this topic so far.  Don't miss this
exciting opportunity!